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Roaming Profiles vs. Mandatory Profiles |
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December 28, 2010
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In an environment with one computer, a user’s profile is stored locally to that one machine and every time the user logs in the desktop and their files are just as they left them.
Roaming Profiles
With roaming profiles the user’s desktop settings and files are stored on the network. When the user logs in to a computer anywhere on the network, all of their personalized settings and saved files traverse the network to that local machine. All of this data must come over the network before the user’s login will complete. This is where problems arise for roaming profiles. Over time, users will accumulate lots of data in the form of documents, files, profile settings etc. The end result is a high load on the network and slow logins for the end user, especially in situations where a lot of users are logging in simultaneously.
One way Microsoft tries to fix these slow logins is by storing a local cache of user profiles on the local machine. This is ok if your users typically login to the same machine everyday. However, if your environment is a large school campus or company with multiple locations, these local profile caches will consume a lot of the local storage on your machines over time.
Mandatory Profiles
The alternative to these pesky roaming profiles is called mandatory profiles. In this case, the admin will set up a base roaming profile with the settings the users will need on a daily basis and these settings will be locked into place. This is done by changing the roaming profile from a .dat file to a .man file, which makes it “Read Only.” By doing this, any changes a user makes to their profile will not be saved. This is great because it means the profile will not swell up over time, and users will experience quick, consistent login times.
While using mandatory profiles, you will need a solution for the users to store their documents and other important files. This is easily solved with the implementation of mapped network drives. This will give the users a place to store anything they want to keep and access from any machine that they log in to.
- Travis Jenkins - triCerat Tech
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